Trompeta Aikaterini-Flora A, Preiss Iris, Ben-Ami Frida, Benayahu Yehuda, Charitidis Costas A
Research Lab of Advanced, Composite, Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens 9 Heroon Polytechneiou St., Zografos Athens GR-15773 Greece
School of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University Ramat Aviv Tel Aviv 69978 Israel.
RSC Adv. 2019 Nov 11;9(63):36707-36716. doi: 10.1039/c9ra06672a.
The increase in global production of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), as well as their use in polymer nanocomposites has raised concerns as to their possible effects on the marine environment that could ultimately affect human populations. Specifically, CNTs have already been tested in antifouling formulations for the prevention of biofouling, mainly to protect ships' hulls, as well as in composite materials that come in contact with seawater. At this point, it seems crucial to assess the possible effects of CNTs on aquatic organisms and assess their toxicity. Thus, in this study, three different model organisms were selected for toxicity testing: water flea, nauplii and zebrafish. The CNTs that were tested have been produced in house the chemical vapour deposition method and were fully characterised in order to understand the effect of their properties on the aquatic organisms. In this study pristine multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as well as functionalised with carboxyl groups were used. Dispersion issues were evident in all tests, both for the pristine and functionalised carbon nanotubes, thus their toxicity could not be determined in relation to their concentration. To overcome this issue, optical observation of the organisms took place. MWCNT black aggregates were clearly observed in the intestine of . Following an additional 24 h in seawater the intestine appeared clean and restored to its normal appearance. This observation leads to the conclusion that MWCNTs did not prove to be fatal to and despite their presence in the digestive track of both non-target organisms. These results show that MWCNTs do not affect the non-target organisms in the short term, thus their use in antifouling coatings and composite materials for maritime applications can be further investigated.
全球碳纳米管（CNT）产量的增加及其在聚合物纳米复合材料中的应用引发了人们对其可能对海洋环境产生影响的担忧，而这种影响最终可能会波及人类群体。具体而言，碳纳米管已在防污配方中进行了测试，主要用于防止生物污损，以保护船舶船体，同时也用于与海水接触的复合材料中。此时，评估碳纳米管对水生生物的潜在影响并测定其毒性显得至关重要。因此，在本研究中，选择了三种不同的模式生物进行毒性测试：水蚤、无节幼体和斑马鱼。所测试的碳纳米管是通过化学气相沉积法在实验室内部制备的，并进行了全面表征，以便了解其特性对水生生物的影响。在本研究中，使用了原始的多壁碳纳米管（MWCNT）以及羧基功能化的碳纳米管。在所有测试中，原始碳纳米管和功能化碳纳米管均存在分散问题，因此无法确定其毒性与浓度之间的关系。为克服这一问题，对生物进行了光学观察。在[具体生物名称]的肠道中清晰观察到了MWCNT黑色聚集体。在海水中再放置24小时后，肠道看起来干净且恢复了正常外观。这一观察结果得出的结论是，尽管MWCNT存在于两种非靶标生物的消化道中，但并未对[具体生物名称]和[具体生物名称]造成致命影响。这些结果表明，MWCNT在短期内不会影响非靶标生物，因此可进一步研究其在海洋应用的防污涂层和复合材料中的使用。
